EuroPride: Claire Turner interview

CLAIRE Turner should be, by rights, in a state of panic at the moment. As joint festival co-ordinator for Manchester's Europride 2003, the buck stops with her for the enormous amount of diverse events taking place over the event's 10-day schedule.

CLAIRE Turner should be, by rights, in a state of panic at the moment. As joint festival co-ordinator for Manchester's Europride 2003, the buck stops with her for the enormous amount of diverse events taking place over the event's 10-day schedule.

The Claire that we meet, however, on the eve of the event, is altogether more relaxed than you could ever imagine under the circumstances.

"We spent a lot of time thinking about this whole thing," she says, sitting back in her office on Oxford Street, "and consulting people about what should be included in the event.

"I think we spoke to about 30 different organisations before coming to any decisions about what was going to happen."

If you look at the schedule for the 10 days, and not just the Big Weekend, you can see Claire's point.

"The remit of the event," she continues, "is to represent as many aspects of gay, lesbian and transgender life as possible and that means not just partying although obviously that's a significant part of the proceedings.

"The main thing this year was to change people's perceptions of the event, to make them realise that Europride is a lot more diverse than previous gay and lesbian festivals in the city.

Diversity

"To be honest, I think people were sceptical at first, but now they've seen the diversity. Everyone is working together, which makes everything a lot easier."

You only have to look at the schedule on the website to see the wide range of events going on. From sport through to arts and politics. From choirs through to gay history events, Europride 2003 really is there for people to take it all in.

And then party like there's no tomorrow.

"The banner project is really important to me," offers Claire when asked what her personal highlights of the event will be.

She is of course referring to the Pride In Our History exhibition at the People's History Museum. "It has brought many different community groups together from students and Amnesty International's lesbian and gay group through to Lash For Lasses.

"Also I think the heritage trail will be great. The researchers have unearthed some great history of gay Manchester that's really going to interest people.

"Then there's the swimming competition organised by Northern Waves."

So what will Claire be doing while all the events are going on?

"Moving round the city making sure that everyone's happy and that things are running smoothly," comes the reply.

"But I am going to make a little time to go down to the official Europride Arena Party at the M.E.N. Arena on Saturday, August 23 because that party is going to mark out Manchester for many years to come."

EuroPride takes place in Manchester from Friday, August 15 to Bank Holiday Monday, August 25. Tickets for the Big Weekend are £10 and can be bought from a number of venues throught the Gay Village, or via the website below. And you can take part in EuroPride as a volunteer (e-mail: info@europridemanchester2003.com), in the parade (check the official website below for a application form) or by staging an event (call event organisers Christopher Hodgson / Claire Turner on 0161 238 4575).